The extended filesystem has been part of the Linux kernel since 0.96c – a faithful companion of the free operating system. With its developments – or, rather, rebirths – through ext2, ext3, and ext4, it is one of the oldest Linux-specific software projects.

Just because you have two solutions for using exFAT doesn't necessarily mean you should use either one of them. We examine some of the issues – legal and technical – surrounding this Microsoft filesystem.